#2 Marcel Duchamp + Edward Weston

"Fountain" (readymade installation) - 1917 - Marcel Duchamp

"Excusado", 1926 - Edward Weston

The first image at the top of the page is a piece installed by artist Marcel Duchamp in 1917. It was a piece meant to be displayed alongside paintings and drawings in a prestigious art society exhibit, but was denied exhibition. 

1) Explain why you think the "fountain" was denied exhibition and what you think Marcel's point was with his "readymade sculpture"?

Here is a similar image, a photograph made by photographer Edward Weston. 

2) Describe what you see in this image in terms of compositional technique and/or the art elements. 

3) Now go a bit further and explain what you think the artist's intentions were when capturing this image. Is this a worthwhile object to photograph with a camera? Explain.

#1 Joseph Niepce

"View from the Window at Le Gras" - 1826

Illustration of a Camera Obscura

This is thought to be the earliest recorded photographs Created by Joseph Niepce (a French inventor) using one of the very earliest forms of the camera called the "camera obscura". This grainy, crude image was an attempt to capture the view from outside his apartment window and took about eight hours to capture! This marks the beginning of the revolution of photography, but also the development of all the visual arts (drawing, painting, etc.) towards a modernism.

1) What's your first reaction to this first photograph? Does it make sense to you?

2) How does this photo remind you in a crude way of modern art?

3) Do you think the world we know today with the internet (facebook, instagram, etc.) would exist without this guy's invention?